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<div id="outline-container-org9bb3fa0" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="org9bb3fa0">Don't Use a Smartphone</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org9bb3fa0">
<div class="PREVIEW" id="org54e5354">
<p>
Back in 2018 I wrote an article explaining <a href="http://nuclearkev.org/articles/back-to-webos.html">why I went back to using webOS</a>. It
talked about how my iPhone broke and I finally had the opportunity to use a
Palm/HP device. This experience only lasted a year due to some carrier issues
but it changed my take on cell phones entirely. Since the phone was so old, only
a few things worked - mostly thanks to the awesome <a href="https://forums.webosnation.com/forum.php">community</a>. This left me with
a sort of semi-smart phone. It didn't have social media but I could use the web
a bit and get my email. Most importantly not having tons of apps and features
really made me "wake up" to the reality of things: People are being controlled.
</p>

</div>


<p>
I have always loved phones and small technology. Maybe it was because I spend so
much time playing GameBoy? My love only got deeper and deeper around 2007-2010
when all these super cool feature phones were coming out. Some of them flipped
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_U740_Alias">horizontally and vertically</a>, others slide up portrait-style, and one even
<a href="https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-Juke_id2392">slide in a circular motion</a>. Then around 2009 or so the <i>smartphone</i> became a
thing! It was so cool that I would do anything to get one. I spend hours and
hours watching videos on phones such as the <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/palm_pre_plus-3249.php">Palm Pre Plus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Kin">Microsoft Kin</a>, and
early android phones like the <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_droid_3-4036.php">Motorola Droid 3</a>. There was so much uniqueness in
each one of these devices that picking one was basically impossible!
</p>


<p>
As time went on the market began to settle&#x2026;. Palm was destroyed by HP,
Microsoft gave up, and even Blackberry succumbed to the two powers: Apple and
Google - well, Apple and android. In my opinion the market officially became
stale around 2014. You either had an iPhone or an android device or bust. This
same thing is still true today - which begs the question: What if you don't want
an iPhone or android phone?
</p>


<p>
Before we can answer this question we need to firstly examine why someone
wouldn't want an iPhone or android phone. Well, the easiest reason is that the
person is old and just wants a phone to call and lightly text. But why would
someone who is <i>totally tech savvy</i> want neither of these? Well, there are
really 3 reason: privacy, mental health, and price.
</p>
</div>

<div id="outline-container-org98a504a" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org98a504a">Privacy</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org98a504a">
<p>
Let me make this abundantly clear no matter what you do an iPhone is not safe in
terms of privacy. No matter what Apple tells you. Their entire system is
proprietary so we have no way to prove that the system is safe. As far as I'm
aware not even jailbreaking an iPhone would keep you safe from their spyware. If
you think Android is safe, you're wrong again! It was made by Google, the worst
of the worst when it comes to privacy. Their entire business model is: "sell
user data." How do you think they got so rich from just being a search engine?
The only way to run android in a semi-safe fashion is by using <a href="https://lineageos.org/">LineageOS</a>
(forked for CyanogenMod) or, better yet, <a href="https://replicant.us/">Replicant</a>. Lineage is basically a
de-Googled Android, which is great but still has proprietary blobs in the
kernel. Replicant is as free as you can get with Android yet it lacks decent
hardware support. That being said, there is basically no way to run iOS or
Android, in a reasonable way, safely!
</p>
</div>
</div>

<div id="outline-container-orgf0efeae" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="orgf0efeae">Mental Health</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orgf0efeae">
<p>
If you know me, I don't usually say "mental health." I find that phrase overused
and kind of annoying. However, in this case, it is proper to use it. Smartphones
mess with your mind! Just like how <a href="https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/social-networking-suck.html">social media is cancerous</a>, smartphones only
aid to its power. If you take the poison of social media and constantly carry it
around in your pocket, you're asking for trouble. Social media causes people to
constantly wanting attention - you gotta have the most upvotes, gotta have the
most friends, gotta check out this chat! This will drive you crazy, without you
necessarily knowing it. Not to mention you'll only see what other <i>want</i> you to
see: only the good of themselves or, in a seasons, only the bad of others. This
is incredibly divisive. Once you got many months without having that crap
constantly annoying you, you'll begin to notice how much more <i>free</i> you feel!
It honestly is a great feeling.
</p>


<p>
Smartphones only amplify the toxin by constantly reminding you that so-and-so
posted this and this guy liked that. Not to mention, smartphones add another
ingredient to the nauseous mixture: connectivity. If you were obsessed with
social media and all you had was a desktop you'd have to either quit your job
and do social media all day or wait until you got home. With a smartphone,
you're always connected. Which <i>could</i> be a good thing<sup><a id="fnr.1" class="footref" href="#fn.1" role="doc-backlink">1</a></sup> but ultimately just
gives you the ticket to stay hooked on it forever. The addiction of the
smartphone will never stop until you remove the smartphone.<sup><a id="fnr.2" class="footref" href="#fn.2" role="doc-backlink">2</a></sup>
</p>
</div>
</div>


<div id="outline-container-orga4ed131" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="orga4ed131">Price</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-orga4ed131">
<p>
Smartphones are so damn expensive. Seriously, they are! The new iPhone 12 and
Galaxy S20 XXX MAX EPIC are like $1,000. The worst part is that in like 2 years
you'll probably need a new one due to all the planned obsolesce these companies
do. Some people would rather put their money into something that will actually
last!
</p>


<hr />


<p>
Well, couldn't you have all those problems on Blackberry OS &#x2013; or on any
smartphone OS? Yes, you could - and I don't recommend them either. Although
you're significantly less likely to have those issues with on something like
<a href="https://postmarketos.org/">postmarketOS</a> which doesn't have native social media apps, doesn't have
proprietary spyware, and isn't designed to fail after a few years. That being
said, I recommend that you <b>don't use a smartphone</b>. Get rid of it and use
something that will let you live your life without constantly worrying about
social media and without spending $1,000 every 2 years.<sup><a id="fnr.3" class="footref" href="#fn.3" role="doc-backlink">3</a></sup>
</p>
</div>
</div>


<div id="outline-container-org9d58a0b" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="org9d58a0b">EDIT {2020-12-02}</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org9d58a0b">
<p>
I didn't realize that I didn't mention the evils of companies uses the GPS,
camera, microphone, and other techniques to sell your data. This is another
good reason to avoid smartphones. Since virtually all smartphones come with a
GPS module, 2 cameras (at least), many microphones, and proprietary drivers
and software that prevent you from knowing if something bad is going on, it's
quite the good argument <i>against</i> smartphones. As I explain in my article on
<a href="dumb-dumb-phones.html">why modern dumb phones are dumb</a>, I talk about how non-smartphones are plagued
by the same issues.
</p>


<p>
Another item I didn't talk about was the use of a <a href="https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/">PinePhone</a> or <a href="https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/">Librem 5</a>,
which are rather safe devices, don't have native social media apps, and are
reasonably priced with little chance of planned obsolesce. I agree that these
are the <i>best</i> option for a smartphone currently. Two things to keep in mind
here are that there are currently (as of 2020-12-02) no operating systems
that are stable yet and that they <b>will not be anything</b> <b>like iOS or
Android</b>. To extrapolate on that last part: there won't be tons and tons of
apps that you can download. For the most part, these will be smartphones but
without the massive number of apps. You should expect the "basics" such as
phone, messaging (SMS/MMS), email, calendar, notes, maps, browser, alarm, and
probably a few other games and <i>maybe</i> an app for <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/">Mastodon</a> or something. That
being said, these devices aren't really in the same league as iOS and Android
phones so I can't really say that they'll have the same negative
effects. However, I have a feeling that even though they don't have the
"same" capabilities currently, they will still cause the same effects just in
a different fashion. What I mean is that you'll still probably stare at your
phone all day long - scrolling and scrolling&#x2026; Either way, these devices are
the <span class="underline">only</span> smartphone that I can recommend at this point if you must have a
smartphone.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="footnotes">
<h2 class="footnotes">Footnotes: </h2>
<div id="text-footnotes">

<div class="footdef"><sup><a id="fn.1" class="footnum" href="#fnr.1" role="doc-backlink">1</a></sup> <div class="footpara" role="doc-footnote"><p class="footpara">
I have a philosophy called <i>The Fine Line of Technology</i> which talks
about how every technological advancement has a fine line between using it for
good and for evil.
</p></div></div>

<div class="footdef"><sup><a id="fn.2" class="footnum" href="#fnr.2" role="doc-backlink">2</a></sup> <div class="footpara" role="doc-footnote"><p class="footpara">
Some folks think you can keep the smartphone and just delete the
accounts. This <i>can</i> work but it's kind of like fighting an alcohol addiction
while living next to a Wines &amp; Spirits store&#x2026;
</p></div></div>

<div class="footdef"><sup><a id="fn.3" class="footnum" href="#fnr.3" role="doc-backlink">3</a></sup> <div class="footpara" role="doc-footnote"><p class="footpara">
I didn't mention privacy here because most non-smartphones still run
proprietary systems that are based on <a href="https://www.android.com/versions/go-edition/">Android Go</a> (and still have Google
services) or <a href="https://www.kaiostech.com/">KaiOS</a> (which is owned by Google and therefore has their spyware
installed). Read about it <a href="dumb-dumb-phones.html">here</a>.
</p></div></div>


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<p class="author">Author: Kevin "The Nuclear" Bloom</p>
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